Chamber and committees

Scottish Government officials are working closely with Health Boards to monitor vaccine uptake amongst eligible cohorts. A weekly report on seasonal influenza activity in Scotland is published on the Public Health Scotland website: https://publichealthscotland.scot/downloads/weekly-national-seasonal-respiratory-report-18-november-2020/

Vaccination uptake for 2019-20 flu season for Healthcare Workers, broken down by each NHS Health Board, is detailed in the following table.

The Scottish Government recognises that this is an extremely difficult time for businesses across Scotland. From the outset we have been explicit that we are utilising every penny of the UK Government’s business support consequential funding to support businesses in Scotland, and we have delivered a package of financial support to help as many businesses as possible. In designing non-domestic rates reliefs as part of this package of financial support, we had to balance helping as many businesses as possible against affordability.

The rates reliefs are set out in The Non-Domestic Rates (Coronavirus Reliefs) (Scotland) Regulations 2020. This includes a universal 1.6% relief available to all non-domestic properties, and a 100% relief for properties in the Retail, Hospitality, Leisure and Airport sectors that meet the qualifying purpose or purposes specified in the classes in schedule 1 of the Regulations as amended. Non-domestic rates are administered by local authorities, and the interpretation of the relevant legislation and the awarding of reliefs is a matter for them.

Together our rates relief package and the initial Business Support Grant Scheme, introduced in March 2020, in the early stages of the pandemic delivered financial support worth £2.3 billion to assist businesses in these challenging times. Properties occupied by the catering equipment hire sector may also have been eligible for the Business Support Grant Funds where they met the eligibility criteria set out in Scottish Government guidance. The funds were open to applications until 10 July.

Further support is now available, and the Strategic Framework set out the Scottish Government's package of business support measures from 2 November which offers grants for businesses required to close by law, and those businesses that remain open but are required by law to modify their operations.

We continue to seek the funding and powers we require to support Scottish businesses through this pandemic, and to engage with specific sectors who may face unique impacts and consider how best to provide help and support.

The Scottish Government recognises that Covid 19 has had a fundamental impact on the Scottish economy and labour market, and that steps are required to mitigate against its worst effects.

We are working closely with Skills Development Scotland and other agencies to both re-purpose existing support for individuals and businesses and quickly develop a range of new programmes and support which can address the risk of increased unemployment.

We are providing £100 million for targeted employment support and training. This includes £60 million to support our Youth Guarantee which will see every young person guaranteed an opportunity in education, a job, or training, and on 8 th October 2020, we launched the £25 million National Transition Training Fund to help up to 10,000 people aged 25 and over, who have lost their jobs or are at risk of redundancy as a result of the virus, to develop the skills required to move into sectors with the greatest potential for future growth and job opportunities. We are also providing £5 million to enhance support for those affected by redundancy through our Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) initiative.

We are investing £3.7m in Individual Training Accounts to enable up to 18,500 people of all ages, who are unemployed or on low incomes, to access funding of up to £200 per year to support training . We’ve worked with SDS and stakeholders to make sure both the training available through Individual Training Accounts and the manner in which they will be delivered, reflect the very different labour market and environment we are now operating in.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with partners to keep schools safe, open and welcoming. However, in the event of any localised closures due to COVID-19, school reopening guidance makes clear that local authorities and schools should have robust contingency plans in place to support remote learning.

During the course of Term 4 2019-20, Education Scotland gathered a range of evidence on the approach to remote learning being taken across local authority areas. This work looked at the use of the Glow platform, use of live/synchronised learning by teachers and use of websites to share information. Education Scotland's analysis indicated that in May 2020, over 430,000 unique users accessed Glow, almost double the number of users from the same period in 2019. In the same month, those users accessed Glow 11.4m times, around 4 times the usage of the same period in 2019.

Further qualitative evidence is being gathered via Education Scotland's "What Scotland Learned" initiative. This will include the sharing of examples of remote learning during the period of Scotland-wide school closures in Spring 2020.

Education Scotland will continue to engage with local authorities and schools in order to monitor the approach to remote learning. The Covid Education Recovery Group will fulfil a further role in helping to work across organisational and structural boundaries, providing a forum for open discussion about what is working and where improvement is needed.

Detailed data on teachers' marking and assessment of pupils' work is not gathered at national level.

Public Heath Scotland has been engaging in a preliminary review of a sample of COVID-19 incidents in schools. The work is in its early stages and much more work needs to be done to build on the preliminary analysis and confirm the findings. However, the Scottish Government is committed to working with partners to keep schools safe, open and welcoming. In the event of any localised closures due to COVID-19, school reopening guidance makes clear that local authorities and schools should have robust contingency plans in place to support remote learning.

Responsibility for arranging remote learning in the event of school closures, instances where pupils need to self-isolate or where pupils need further support to catch up on learning, rests with individual schools and local authorities. This is set out in the Scottish Government's Coronavirus recovery guidance for schools.

In order to broaden the options available to schools, Education Scotland is working with local government via the national e-learning partnership to extend the provision of e-learning options across the Broad General Education and Senior Phase. Further information about the national e-learning partnership is available at:

https://education.gov.scot/education-scotland/news-and-events/
new-partnership-offer-to-improve-availability-of-online-learning-across-scotland/

To improve access to digital devices, the Scottish Government is investing £25m to provide around 70,000 devices and 18,000 connectivity solutions for disadvantaged children and young people.

To expand the options available to schools - including non digital options - Education Scotland launched its "Scotland Learns" initiative. This provides resources to schools, newsletters to teachers and parents and learning activities covering the key themes of literacy & English, numeracy & mathematics and health & wellbeing.